Comparison of Change Management Systems

12
Management
Important factor here is to acknowledge
that all defeat has its source in you
yourself. Admitting that allows you to
set more realistic goals and to take
responsibility of you development.
Above procedure allows anybody to
simultaneously perform work tasks and
develop qualities that he or she needs.
Thanks to deliberate practice even most
boring job gets additional meaning and
a greater goal. This raises motivation to
work and to continue self development.
Deliberate practice at tester’s
work
Deliberate practice can be used during
tester’s work. Many task in software
testing produce measurable outcomes.
Many processes have corresponding
standards that can be used to judge
tester’s performance, e.g. ISO 29119 or
IEEE 829.
To be a better tester one has to get
more of what has been mentioned in
first chapter:
• knowledge about testing process and
techniques
• technical knowledge
• domain knowledge
• personal traits
Through deliberate practice you can
improve skills or get knowledge from
any of above listed groups. If you
need technical knowledge and you are
implementing automated test scripts
you may set a goal of employing into
your tests today one new feature of
automated testing tool which you are
using. In such case you should choose
an area in which the feature may be
useful, get to know the feature in details
and use it as appropriate. After the work
you may have the tests you produced
reviewed by more experienced test
automation engineer and he or she
will tell you what you did well and what
aspects you should improve.
If you need skills in using testing
techniques and you plan today to design
test cases, you may choose one testing
technique and try to design more test
cases to each test condition, even if you
have already covered them. At the end
of the day you will be able to use that
technique far better and also you will
be able to tell for which types of testing
conditions it should be applied and how.
If you need more inspiration in setting
everyday goals of personal development
you can refer to ISTQB syllabi. Both
Foundation Level and Advanced level
syllabi contain learning objectives.
Learning objectives are divided into four
levels:
• K1 – remember
• K2 – understand
• K3 – apply
• K4 – analyze
They are also structured by the chapters
of syllabi. And for example if your general
development goal is to more effectively
use reviews you may refer to chapter 3
Static techniques of Foundation Level
syllabus and chose one of learning
objectives from that chapter. For
example “Recognize software work
products that can be examined by the
different static techniques”. You can
make then a checklist for your project to
use in project planning, which will help
checking if all necessary reviews have
been planned.
If you need to work on some of you
personal qualities you may choose one
of traits of good tester and make a goal
for the present day of it. For example
if you want to cultivate professional
pessimism, you may try to think about
project and product risks in tasks you are
working on. Make a goal of performing
twenty mini risk analyses today and put
a dash on a sheet of paper for each
analysis and note how many risk items
you were able to think of.
These are examples only of many
different directions and goals you may
choose from while planning personal
development of you or your testers.
If you add to that pieces of domain
knowledge testers need to possess in
order to design and run tests in projects,
you get a vast number of opportunities
to learn.
Summary
Every tester needs to learn and to
polish his skills. There are many ways
of doing that. First of all you need to
achieve level of so called conscious
incompetence. That drives learning and
training courses can carry you from
conscious incompetence to the level of
conscious competence. In that level you
are able to perform you work, but you
simultaneously think of the way you are
doing it. This level is still in your discomfort
zone. As your experience grows, you are
growing more and more accustomed to
using skills you acquired during training
course or workshop. These skills
move more and more into your zone
of competence or more precisely you
competence zone expands to include
those new skills and techniques. When
your work hides completely into comfort
zone your personal development stops.
And at that moment you need deliberate
practice which will move you back into
conscious competence level and out of
comfort zone and allow you to grow.
In this article I showed the need of
personal development of tester from
the point of view of a tester himself
and an organization he works for. I
showed several ways of acquiring new
skills and knowledge. And I described
deliberate practice and its application
which can help sustain personal growth
on daily basis, in which all testers should
participate.
Reference
1. International Software Testing
Qualifications Board: Certified Tester
Foundation Level Syllabus
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2. International Software Testing
Qualifications Board: Certified Tester
Advanced Level Syllabus
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3. Blanchard K. H., Johnson S.: One
Minute Manager, William Morrow; Later
Printing edition (September 1, 1982),
ISBN 978-0688014292
----------------------------------------------------
4. Colvin G.: Talent Is Overrated:
What Really Separates World-Class
Performers from Everybody Else,
Portfolio Hardcover; 1 edition (October
16, 2008), ISBN 978-1591842248
----------------------------------------------------
5. Johnson S.: Who Moved My Cheese?:
An Amazing Way to Deal with Change
in Your Work and in Your Life, G. P.
Putnam's Sons (September 8, 1998),
ISBN 978-0399144462